Adamawa okada ban: Punishing many for the sin of few?

Yola, the Adamawa State capital and the four major towns of Mubi, Numan, Gaanye and Michika rely solely on motorcycles for township shuttling due to the almost total absent of taxis in the towns. Survey shows that motorcycles dominate about seventy percent means of transportation in the affected towns, thereby  rendering hundreds of people stranded. […]

Yola, the Adamawa State capital and the four major towns of Mubi, Numan, Gaanye and Michika rely solely on motorcycles for township shuttling due to the almost total absent of taxis in the towns.

Survey shows that motorcycles dominate about seventy percent means of transportation in the affected towns, thereby  rendering hundreds of people stranded. As a result, some car owners, particularly civil servants are cashing in to make brisk business.

Many commuters including students now have to trek to schools, markets or places of work or pay through their nose to reach their destinations.

For instance, the transport fare from Jimeta to the ancient town of Yola which hitherto causes N50 now attracts between N70 to N100 for those who are lucky and strong enough to board the vehicle because of the rush as the four hundred tricycles made available by the state government to replace commercial motorcycles are grossly inadequate.

A commuter, Bello Abubakar noted that, “four hundred trickles are grossly inadequate for Yola town alone to talk of the whole state. As you know the state capital alone deserve not less than 1,000 tricycles to address this hardship”.

Also commenting the vice chairman of Yola North metropolitan Branch of the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycles Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACCOMORON) Malam Danjuma Rabo, lamented that of the twenty tricycles allocated to his members, only seven got to them.

“We don’t know where the remaining 13 entered. We want the state governor to seriously investigate to ensure that the tricycles get to the genuine members,” he said.

For Buba Idris, a farmer, the issue is that government should review the ban on operations of motorcycles as it will grossly affect agriculture in this farming season.

“We are suffering  because you can trek about 50 kilometres into the bush to reach to our farms, just as you know no taxi can take you there because there is no road, therefore we rely on our motorcycles to get to farms.

“I want to plead with governor Nyako to see reasons and ignore this bad advice of banning motorcycles, because the effects not only render thousands of youths jobless, it also affect farmers, students, workers and other small scale and petty business men and women in the society and it’s those people that constitute the majority,’’ he said.

The trailing Protests

While farmers and others are trekking, on the other hand, the registered commercial drivers could be seen now groaning that their jobs are being taken over by civil servants and other private car owners.

“The private car owners have virtually taken over our jobs now, we have to struggle with them to survive,” Danladi Haruna, a commercial bus driver, lamented.

During a visit to Jimeta modern market most of the traders were lamenting the effect of the ban, pointing out that where many of them could not reach their shops earlier enough due to the ban, those that opened for business were also complaining of low patronage unlike before when the market was a beehive of activities.

Hajiya Rabi a food vendor on a major roundabout near modern market lamented that, ‘’I’m finish, I don’t know what to do because of this bad development, our colleague Binta who has high blood pressure had collapsed and almost dead when she heard the news of this banning.

“The achaba riders are mostly our customers and if they are gone we are finished. Therefore we are calling on Governor Nyako to please come to our rescue by lifting the ban for us to survive,’’ Hajiya Rabi has said.

The protest by some Igbo traders in the state capital last Monday over incessant robbery attacks, spurred the state government to impose a total ban on both private and commercial motorcyclists, a situation that caused many people stranded in various bus stops while some had to trek before getting to their destinations.

Government officials has explained that the total ban was part of the new security measure to ensure protection of lives and property in Numan, Mubi, Ganye, Michika and Yola the state capital.

Meanwhile, business and commercial activities are yet to pick up in the metropolis as only few traders opened their shops for business in most of the business area.

Also, some traders have had to stay home due to the ban while some managed to get to market by Keke NAPEP and some parents were not able to send their children and wards to school.

In most of the mosques and churches in the state capital pastors and Imams described the total ban “as inhuman and barbaric,” calling on the government to rescind its decision.

“We believe the government was ill advised and this ban will not augur well,” said Imam Muhammad Badamasi, while Pastor James Yohanna summed up, “residents are now thrown to mourning and are living in an atmosphere of despair and agony.”

While security chiefs support the action, some civil organizations said it will add to the suffering of the people because motorcycle is the major means of transportation. According to the state chairman of Association for Good Governance, Adamawa state chapter, Alhaji Abdullahi German, the ban is just like punishing many for the sins of few.

The group strongly condemned the ban. “This is not the way of tackling insecurity in the state as this action will rather wreck more havoc,” he said.

Therefore the group stressed the need for the state government to hastily rescind its decision. “It is pity and shame for the government that was elected by poor man will now turn to bite the hands that feed it,’’ a human right activist said.

Analysts have variously linked the rise of both commercial and private motorcycles to the dwindling economic fortunes of the country, as many Nigerians have found succour in the business as they flee from poverty.

As the trade blossoms, so have vices hitherto unknown in the land such as kidnapping, bag snatching, outright armed robbery and lately, terrorism.

In security parlance, the commercial motorcyclist and his vehicle have now become objects of suspicion and fear and to arrest the worsening situation, governments in different tiers moved. A number of drastic measures, ranging from partial to outright ban, were put in place. Expectedly, there have been stiff opposition, not only from the Achaba operators but also from those who depend on bikes for mobility.

Then what should be done? “Government  need to rescind its decision until when it has provided an effective alternative, adequate tricycles, buses as well as creating more employment to the teeming unemployed youth roaming about,” said Malam Usman Danladi Maraneyo, former  security official.